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21 Jun 2007 : Column 2216W—continued

Stationery—the Department’s accounting system combines spend on both printing and stationery. I am therefore unable to provide a breakdown of stationery only. The total costs for printing and stationery are included in the table below.

Business Cards—the Department for Work and Pensions accounting system does not enable us to provide an analysis of spending on these products. As such, the spend on business cards in included in the table.

Building signs—the Department for Work and Pensions accounting system does not enable us to provide an analysis of spending on these products. As such, the information is not available in the requested format.

The printing and stationery costs included in the table all cover posters, leaflets, letters, printing supplies, paper, pens etc. used by the Child Support agency in a given year. The costs for printing and stationery over the last six years as follows:

21 Jun 2007 : Column 2217W

Financial year	Printing and stationery (£ million)
2001-02	1.5
2002-03	2.2
2003-04	1.8
2004-05	1.8
2005/06	2.1
2006-07	2.2
Total	11.6

The Department retains records for six years in accordance with its statutory obligations, therefore information is not available on the earlier years.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

Child Support Agency: Training

Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what training courses were attended by Child Support Agency staff in each of the last three years; and what the cost was of each course to his Department; [133918]

(2) pursuant to the answer of 26 February 2007, Official Report, column 1064W, on departmental training, how much was spent on courses for staff in the Child Support Agency in (a) stress awareness, (b) self development, (c) self awareness, (d) creative thinking, (e) curriculum vitae writing, (f) running staff clubs, (g) facilitation skills, (h) non-verbal behaviour, (i) intervention skills and (j) being a change agent in each of the last three years for which figures are available; and how many staff attended these courses. [136020]

Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty dated, 21 June 2007:

In reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of state promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what training courses were attended by Child Support Agency staff in the last three years; and what the cost was of each course to his Department. [133918]

You also asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26^(th) February 2007, Official Report, column 1064W, on departmental training how much was spent on courses for staff in the Child support Agency in (a) stress awareness, (b) self development, (c) self awareness, (d) creative thinking, (e) curriculum vitae writing, (f) running staff clubs, (g) facilitation skills, (h) non-verbal behaviour, (i) intervention skills and (j) being a change agent in each of the last three years for which figures are available; and how many staff attended these courses. [136020]

The Agency’s training programme is aimed at making Agency people experts in their specialist business areas in order to effectively deliver more money to more children and improve client service. The Agency offers a wide range of training programmes, including technical training, work towards professionally accredited qualifications, and personal effectiveness training, including some of the courses specified above.

This training is delivered using a number of methods, including our own Learning Resource Centre, Departmental e-learning courses that are available to all our people from their work station and accessed via the Department’s Intranet, and
21 Jun 2007 : Column 2218W
external facilitator led training. Varying degrees of information are available for the training offered by each of these sources. Unfortunately, I am therefore unable to provide full detail of all Agency training over the last three years.

Such information as is available is set out in the attached tables.

In relation to the specific training courses you have requested details for, the number of training courses provided via the Learning Resource Centre over the past 3 years is set out in Table 1. However, the information provided is restricted to the number of variable length sessions delivered in the years specified, as information on the number of people participating in the training and the cost to the Agency of these training courses is not available in the format requested.

I am unable to price information for the number of Departmental e-learning courses undertaken by Agency people. There is no cost associated with accessing Departmental e-learning, beyond the time spent taking these courses and their initial development. The Department covered all the developmental costs of these courses and the direct cost to the Agency of each course is nil.

The number of Agency people undertaking the Department’s external facilitator led course and the cost of these course is set out in Table 2.

Finally, Tables 3 and 4 set out the number of technical skills training courses attended by Agency people in the last three years. Training set out in Table 4 supports the implementation of the Agency’s Operational Improvement Plan, which focuses on delivering more money to more children. Unfortunately, information on the cost for each of these courses in not readily available.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

Table 1: Number of people who attended Learning Resource Centre training sessions during 2004-07
	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
Stress awareness	38	112	31
Self development	236	322	128
Creative thinking	11	13	8
Curriculum vitae writing	58	6	0
Facilitation skills	4	0	0
Being a change agent	33	13	22

Table 2: Cost and quantity of DWP/External facilitator led training during 2004-07
	2004-05		2005-06		2006-07
Course type	Number of people	Cost (£)	Number of people	Cost (£)	Number of people	Cost (£)
Stress awareness	10	450	70	3,254	11	537
Self development	69	8,023	101	8,087	9	3,853
Curriculum vitae writing	58	2,252	6	450	0	0
Facilitation skills	4	300	0	0	0	0

21 Jun 2007 : Column 2219W

Table 3: Number of technical training course held during 2004-06
	Number of courses undertaken
Course type	2004-05	2005-06
New entrant-New system new rules	48	142
New entrant-New system old rules	0	3
New entrant old system old rules	7	18
Existing staff-refresher training new rules	15	52
Existing staff-refresher training old rules	16	13
Business change CSR—New system new rules	395	168
Business change CSR—New system old rules	0	8
Total	481	396

Table 4: Number of technical training courses held during 2006-07
Course t ype	Number of courses undertaken 2006-07
New client	92
Client service	125
Debt enforcement	28
Legal enforcement	22
Team leader	117
Other	94
Total	478

Children: Maintenance

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many deduction of earnings orders the Child Support Agency had in place in each month since January 2000; and if he will make a statement. [141095]

Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 21 June 2007:

In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many deduction of earnings orders the Child Support Agency had in place in each month since January 2000; and if he will make a statement.

Such information as is available, is presented in the attached table.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

21 Jun 2007 : Column 2220W

Number of cases, which have a deduction from earnings order (DEO) or a deduction from earnings request (DER) in place from February 2000 to March 2007
Month ending	Cases with DEO or DER as method of maintenance collection
February 2000	138,400
May 2000	141,700
August 2000	142,000
November 2000	141,300
February 2001	141,100
May 2001	140,100
August 2001	140,100
November 2001	138,500
February 2002	140,000
May 2002	138,600
August 2002	138,400
November 2002	139,000
February 2003-July 2004	(1)—
August 2004	132,900
September 2004	133,800
October 2004	134,500
November 2004	136,000
December 2004	141,300
January 2005	138,000
February 2005	139,800
March 2005	141,300
April 2005	142,100
May 2005	142,900
June 2005	144,500
July 2005	146,400
August 2005	148,600
September 2005	149,900
October 2005	151,300
November 2005	153,000
December 2005	153,700
January 2006	155,100
February 2006	156,200
March 2006	158,600
April 2006	160,100
May 2006	161,600
June 2006	162,600
July 2006	164,200
August 2006	165,200
September 2006	165,400
October 2006	165,500
November 2006	166,100
December 2006	158,100
January 2007	160,400
February 2007	160,600
March 2007	162,700
(1) Robust information covering the period February 2003 to July 2004 is not available. Notes: 1. Numbers are rounded to the nearest hundred. 2. The table includes deduction from earnings orders (DEOs) and deduction from earnings requests (DERs). DERs are the equivalent of DEOs when a non-resident parent is a member of the Armed Forces. 3. The table above includes those old-scheme cases with either a Full Maintenance Assessment or an Interim Maintenance Assessment; plus those new-scheme cases with either a Full Maintenance Calculation, or a Default Maintenance Decision. New-scheme cases being processed clerically are excluded from this analysis. 4. Data prior to March 2003 are only available quarterly. March 2007 is the most recent available. 5. The volume of deductions from earnings orders/requests (DEO/Rs) decreased to 158,000 in December 2006. This sudden fall was caused by a fix to the new computer system to suspend 8,500 ineffective DEOs on cases where employers had informed the Agency that the non-resident parent on that case was no longer in their employment. These DEOs have been suspended and the Agency put together a recovery plan to trace those non-resident parents and restore compliance, through DEOs where appropriate.

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